Does anyone appreciate the silent film nowadays? Lillian Gish and Charlie Chaplin made the genre popular and successful, but the first commercially successful sound film, The Jazz Singer, essentially killed the genre for the movie goers. So, Google, in all their wisdom, has decided to celebrate the launch of their Web Speech API by paying homage to the silent film era.

The Peanut Gallery (also a play on the theatre-coined term) allows users to add intertitles to old black and white movie clips. Nothing strange or startling about that, but it’s how the intertitles are added to the clips that shows off the power of the Web Speech API. Users simply watch the snippets, say something funny or (in)appropriate and it gets automatically added to the clip.

Google is hoping that this will show off the power and capabilities of the API, providing new ways for users to interact with their web browser and navigate online sites and services.

But, alas, we do have to mention the negatives. There are always going to be caveats around technology like this. Dialect confusion, background conditions and error rates all prove that the technology, while useful, will never be as universally accepted as traditional interactive means, such as keyboard and mouse, touch interfaces and, more recently, Kinect.

That being said, if anyone feels like giving it a go, let us know of your successes (or failures) in the comments section below.